switches are based on Broadcom’s Tomahawk chipset. Tomahawk silicon delivers 3.2Tbps switching capacity – 32 100G ports -- and SDN-optimized engines in a single chip, and features all-25G per-lane interconnect, enabling transformation to 25G and 50G Ethernet networks and eventually up to 100G.

The 7060CX-32S, which offers multi-speed 10/25/40/50/100G on all 32 ports in a 1RU leaf switch;

The 7260QX-64, a 64-port 40G 2RU low latency system with power under 5W per port;

The 7260CX-64, which offers 64 line rate 100G interfaces in 2RU. All of the 7260 switches support 450ns latency, VXLAN routing and bridging, 136K MAC addresses, 128K IPv4 and 84K IPv6 routes, and 104K host routes;

The 7320X-32C, a 32-port 100G module for the existing 7300X chassis, bringing that switch a total of 256 ports of 100G per system. Each port can support a choice of 100G, 40G, 2x50G, 4x 10G or 4x 25G. Arista also unveiled fabric cards for the 7320X line that support 6.4Tbps full duplex per line card slot, and 100G connections to the line cards;

New 7050X fixed switch models, the 7050SX-72Q and 7050TX-72Q. They offer a combination of 48 10G ports with 6 QSFP+ 40G ports with support for wire speed VXLAN routing.

The Arista switches are complemented by enhancements to Arista’s EOS operating system software. The enhancements include Smart System Upgrade, for making traffic loss during upgrades unnoticeable to applications; and hitless speed change for changing a port speed without resetting or reloading the entire switch.

All of Arista’s new switches run the same EOS binary image and support for the full EOS feature set, Arista says.

All new switches are also supported by Arista’s CloudVision workload automation and orchestration software.

Arista also announced availability of new 40G and 100G optics, including an industry compatible 40G BiDi transceiver that operates over multi-mode fiber. The company is also offering a choice of 100G connections for server-to-leaf and leaf-to-spine connections, including Active Optical Cables, 100GBASE-SR4 and 25GbE breakout cables.

The 7060CX-32 and 7260QX-64 are available now with pricing starting at under $1,000 per 100GbE port. The EOS enhancements are also available now.

The 7050X switches will be available in the fourth quarter, along with the 7320X and the new 40G and 100G optics.

This story, "Arista joins Cisco, Dell at 25G" was originally published by
Network World.

Jim Duffy has been covering technology for over 28 years, 23 at Network World. He covers enterprise networking infrastructure, including routers and switches. He also writes The Cisco Connection blog and can be reached on Twitter @Jim_Duffy and at jduffy@nww.com.